Social work and social care

Social Work research in the Department is concerned with a broad range of issues including:

• Anti-poverty practice;
• Birth parent’s experiences of practice and care-experienced people’s perspectives;
• Care and adoption proceedings in the family court;
• Child Welfare Inequalities;
• Comparative social/family policy;
• Family and children’s participation and rights;
• Family support, policy and practice;
• Gender, trans and gender diversity;
• Hidden and marginalised communities, multiple social exclusion;
• Interpersonal and gender-based violence and abuse;
• Philosophy of social work;
• Poverty metrics, Big data and AI – based tools and the lives of people impacted by them;
• Practitioner perspectives of social work practice and decision-making;
• Research with children using qualitative and creative methods;
• Restorative approaches;
• Safeguarding children and families;
• Translation of science into policy and professional practice;
• Professional decision making in complex systems.

Our research

Our research has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation (e.g. Identifying and understanding inequalities in child welfare intervention rates, Mothering in and on exiting prison and domestic abuse), ESRC (e.g. Family Potential Research Group), the World Health Organization (e.g., Elder Abuse, Risk Factors and Consequences: Mega-Maps), World Universities Network (e.g. Domestic Abuse and Mental Health), Norface (e.g. Family complexity and social work: A comparative study of family-based welfare work in different welfare regimes), Department of Education (e.g. An Evaluation of Leeds Innovation Programme Family Valued), the British Academy (e.g. Theorising Families: An examination of social work practices), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) (e.g. the European Family Support Network) and a host of local authorities and charities. 

Our research informs practice locally in the South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership which includes local authority partners in Lincolnshire County Council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Sheffield City Council and Doncaster Children's Trust. We are also involved in a number of charities/service user support networks and our work has national and international impact through our work with: 

• British Association for Social Workers 
• Research in Practice
• Stowarzyszenie dla Dzieci i Młodzieży SZANSA

Our work is regularly published in high quality journals (see individual web pages) and featured in the media through journalism, podcasts and TV: 

• Coronavirus lockdown measures may be putting older adults at greater risk of abuse
• Domestic abuse and mental ill-health: twin shadow pandemics stalk the second wave
• Britain's Homeless Mums
• Podcast: On social work with Joe Smeeton
• Researching reform
• Poverty-aware practice with children and families
• BASWTalk - Ep2 Child Welfare Inequalities Research Project
• Ofsted ratings do reflect local authority deprivation and spending
• Poor children 'more likely to be in care'
• Children in UK's poorest areas 10 times more likely to go into care

Our PhD students

Social Work PhD students are currently studying:

• Care experienced people’s success stories in education;
• Child sexual exploitation and moral panics;
• Children and foster care in Thailand;
• Exploring family practices in the context of domestic violence and abuse and state responses;
• Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans women and Sexual Violence;
• Technology-facilitated Sexual Violence in Bangladesh;
• The meaning of permanence in residential children’s homes;
• Trans people’s experiences of fostering and adoption in England;
• Self help for parents of children with autism in Saudi Arabia.